Brothers Finn and Conor Keogh, and friends Oli Spackman and Jimmy Lanwern, are the four that make up new, London-based band Keo and, prior to their opening of the second stage at BST Hyde Park: Kings Of Leon, we sat down to find out just a little more about them.
Let us start with asking – how would you guys describe yourselves?
Finn: We’re kind of like a ‘90s influenced take on folk? I think the songs are written in like a folk-influenced way, but the vibe of it is kind of more grungy, but we’d like to think we’re something new.
Jimmy: Folk songs with grungy guitars!
So, we couldn’t find out too much about you online. Even the streaming service platforms were wiped clean. What’s stopping you guys in terms of releasing things, or making it?
F: We just want to do it the right way. We’ve got a lot of friends in the industry now, and we want to hopefully collaborate with the right people, make a good record and when the time is right, put it out. At the moment, it’s just that those stars haven’t aligned.
Conor: We’ve been waiting on a lot of people. I’m kind of hoping for deals and stuff like this. But…
J: …But we have a plan now!
Do you want to blame anyone in particular? We can include it in the interview! [A chorus of half-chuckling, half-terrified no’s met at this offer.] Well, to have nothing properly out and to be supporting Kings Of Leon is a hell of a gig to get, how did you pull that off?
F: A pretty good one, yeah! Shoutout to Jamie, he sorted this out, and our manager Callum; we’ve got a very lovely team and all those people made it possible today! We did have some music out, but we took it down; we hope to be back soon with some new songs that we feel will better represent us.
Oli: Yeah, Jamie at Live Nation!
Are we right in thinking that you guys played Omeara the other week?
F: Yeah, we did! We played supporting Courting.
How was that? How was the reception?
F: We love that venue, and Beavertown put on a great night. It was really, really good. It was also sort of last second? We took the gig with four days’ notice, so there was no one we knew there, which is always great. We like winning new people over, you know? So that was fun!
Which must work wonders for today then?
F: Today is going to be weird. You can’t even really make out the faces in the crowd; it’s going to be a first experience for us. Whereas Omeara was probably a little bit more scary if anything, wasn’t it?
J: Yeah. Smaller venues for me are scarier than big stages, you know, because you’re more connected with the audience. I don’t know… you’ve got to make eye contact.
Plus, smaller gigs with only a few bands on the line-up, there must a lot more emphasis on you guys as performers because it’s such a limited number of bands. At festivals, people can come and go; gigs, though, you must want to just grab everyone and hang on.
F: Yeah, I think… So this summer has been our first run of festival shows and we’ve learned a lot and we’ve definitely earned our stripes, but we haven’t done anything like this before. We’re really, really excited!
So, going past today, what does 2025 hold in store for you guys?
O: We just want to release music.
F: Hopefully, we can show people what we’ve been holding back. We’ve sent a lot of our demos out to people, and everyone that’s heard them seems to have started to believe in us? Hopefully we can just have some actual fans resonate with our music and come to our shows. I think what it’ll hold for us is some bigger headline gigs in London and hopefully a tour support.
That’s where you guys are based then, in London. How did you guys get together?
C: Me and Finn have been playing music together since we were very young. Our dad’s an Irish musician, and Finn would always play guitar with him on stage and do like a little 20 minutes, and then I’d hop up and play the bass. And something we’ve just always wanted to do was make a band. And then we moved to London a couple years ago. Pretty soon we met Ollie and then we’ve had a few guitarists.
F: Just by being in the scene, we met Jimmy and it, just, felt like a band? We felt like how it should feel, and it’s felt like that for a while now. It’s been really nice.
Last question, because we’re conscious you guys are on stage in an hour! Something we always like to ask: what does Kio mean to you?
F: Everything. I know it’s naff, but seriously. I go to sleep thinking about the band, wake up thinking about… in fact, last night I didn’t sleep, thinking about the band, so no. Yeah, I think it means a lot to us. It’s our future.
O: It’s our pride, all of us. We all want to be musicians. We all have to be. This is our dream.
F: We know it’s going to work as well. We’re confident in what we’re doing and keeping it authentic, trying to make something that we actually believe is vulnerable and real, and I think if we just keep doing that the stars will continue to align for us, hopefully.
Well, from just how good their set was, let’s hope so!
Interview by: James O’Sullivan
See Keo live at The Windmill in Brixton on 28th August 2024, with support from Blue Polar. You can also see the band at Neighbourhood Festival (UK) and Left Of The Dial Festival (NL).
